Thermal energy storage with phase change material-A state-of-the art review

Recently, thermal energy storage (TES) has received increasing attention for its high potential to meet cities' need for effective and sustainable energy use. Traditionally, energy was stored in the form of sensible heat which requires large volume of storage material. The storage volume can be significantly reduced if energy is stored in the form of latent heat and thus can benefit enormously practical applications. The existing approaches in the design, integration and application of phase change materials (PCMs) in domestic hot water tanks (HWT) and transpired solar collector (TSC) using water/air as the heat transfer media are reviewed. Crucial influencing factors are considered, including thermo-physical properties of different PCMs, different configurations of PCMs in HWT and TSC, and the limitations of each technique. This paper also discusses the existing simulation, design tools and experimental studies related to PCMs usage in HWT and central thermal storage.